Possibility: Determination
by Mystic83
Summary: COMPLETE! What if the Cylon had never slipped up and referred to Kara by her call sign? What if Lee couldn’t take waiting around for her on the Astral Queen? KaraLee
1. Part One

**This will be a series of stand-alone stories which deal with the choices that the characters on Battlestar Galactica have made throughout the first half of the second season (I'll be posting in as much of the order of the season as I can). I want to explore what would have happened/changed if things had gone differently. Some of the stories will be angst, some will be shippy, some will be funny. There will be different pairings throughout. Don't feel like you have to check out each one to understand the others. All I ask is that if it intrigues you, then give it a try. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!****_

* * *

There are pivotal moments in one's life where if you take the wrong path everything may change. Those changes may be for the good or for the bad. The possibilities are endless._**

* * *

He stared at the building in front of him. The Delphi Mental Institution had survived the nuclear holocaust with barely a scratch on it.

"Like a shiny fraking beacon calling out to me," he whispered, walking up the first step to the main entrance.

Lee Adama knew there was no way he would make it out of this one alive. At this point, he didn't care.

* * *

_The Raptor touched down on the surface of Caprica, and Lee let out a deep breath. When he had first decided to steal a ship to go look for her, he hadn't actually thought he would make it back to his home world. He thought he'd change his mind at some point._

_But then the sight of Kara's face when she apologized and he simply walked away would pop into his head. He would think about how she should have come home over two weeks ago, and he would hear her apology ringing in his ears. He would remember his hollow stare as he pushed whatever they had to the side and ignored her._

_There was no way he could back out._

"_Captain Adama."_

_The voice yelling his name made Lee pause halfway up the stairs to the Delphi Museum. He drew his gun and pointed it at a pilot he thought had died well over two months ago. Lee's eyes narrowed as he clicked the safety off. He would never have guessed that this man would turn out to be a Cylon. "Stop where you are."_

_Helo threw his hands up defensively. "I'm not what you think I am."_

"_Okay," Lee smirked. "What are you then?"_

"_A complete fraking moron if you want Kara's opinion." Helo smirked a little himself as Lee faltered upon hearing her name._

_Lee' s focus shifted. Frankly, he didn't care if Helo was a Cylon at this point. He did not come back to his war-torn home for anything but her. "You know where she is?"_

"_She was with me up until about five days ago. The Cylons attacked, we retreated, and she wasn't with us."_

_  
"Who's we?"_

"_There's a resistance group of survivors who've been attacking the Cylons since they realized what was happening. Kara and I stumbled upon them when we were trying to find a ship out of here." Helo's eyes drifted down to focus on the gun still in Lee's hand. "Would you put that away, please, sir? I'm not a Cylon. Honestly, would Kara trust me if there was any chance I was?"_

_Lee stared at Helo for a moment before holstering his gun. "How am I to know that you're telling me the truth about being with her?"_

_He could see Helo thinking for a moment before he figured out how to convince Lee he was telling the truth. "The first few hours we spent together, Kara seemed preoccupied with something. Eventually she told me right before she jumped away from Galactica, she had ruined the only friendship she had left in this world. She wouldn't talk about it, but I could tell it never really stopped bothering her. Something makes me think she was wrong, though."_

"_And why is that?" Lee said, walking back down the stairs to stand beside Helo. He wasn't completely satisfied yet, but his gut was telling him that this was the Helo he had met briefly before the Cylons attacked._

"_Well, I assume she was talking about you. Obviously she didn't ruin anything if you were willing to come all this way to look for her."_

"_You're right," Lee agreed. He had come to Caprica in order to apologize in the only way he knew how. He and Kara only related to one another in overly dramatic, grandiose gestures. "Do you have any idea where she is?"_

"_None." Helo shook his head. "We went back for her when we realized she wasn't with us, but there was no sign of her. Anders has been running himself into the ground, trying to figure it out."_

"_Anders?"_

"_Samuel T. Anders. He used to be the captain of the Caprica Buccaneers. They were in the mountains outside Delphi for some high altitude training when the Cylons attacked. Anders is leading the resistance movement we fell into."_

"_And he's searching for Kara?"_

"_She meant something to him."_

_Lee's face lit up in confusion. "How long have you been with this resistance?"_

"_Kara was with them for about a week before she was taken. She and Anders had a thing."_

_  
"Could you be a little more specific?"_

"_It was typical Kara," Helo replied, assuming the Captain would know what that meant._

_Lee raised his eyebrows in surprise. He definitely hadn't expected this when imagining the trouble Kara was getting into on Caprica. "Frak buddy?"_

"_Yeah, but with the heightened emotions of the world ending, it got a little intense."_

"_Don't move!" yelled a voice from behind Helo, interrupting the two pilots' impromptu discussion of Starbuck's sex life. Lee craned his neck to see a man inching his way towards them, a rather intimidating Scorpion in his hands._

"_It's okay, Anders," Helo called back. "I know him."_

"_That means shit," Anders said as he got closer to the pair. "You also know a Cylon rather intimately."_

_Lee glanced questioningly at Helo. "I'll explain later," Helo insisted. "Anders, would you put down the fraking gun before Apollo gets mad and shoots you dead?"_

_A look of surprise came over Anders as he lowered his gun. "Apollo, huh? It's nice to finally meet you."_

"_You know me?" Lee couldn't understand how Anders would have any idea who he was. He had been stationed mostly on the Atlantia before the attacks, and while there, he had done nothing to bring himself special attention. His feats on the Galactica were more momentous, but they had all occurred after the world had ended. Kara was so fraking angry at him most of the time, and Helo barely knew him. There was no way this Anders person could know him._

"_Kara talked about you all the time," Anders explained, noticeably relaxing now that he knew who the mystery stranger was. "She said you were the only person she could ever trust in the air."_

_Helo watched as Apollo's face went white. The words obviously took him by surprise. Obviously, Apollo really had no clue how much Starbuck valued him. Funny how it was always the ones you cared for the most that you couldn't be honest with._

_After a moment of tense silence between the three men, Helo stepped forward to stand in front of Anders. "Any new developments?"_

_Anders motioned for them to start moving as they made their way to where a line of trucks stood. "My people think they have a lead on where Kara and Sue-Shaun were taken, but they're still not sure. I don't want to risk anyone's lives until the information is confirmed."_

"_Tell me where it is and I'll go," Lee suggested. "You don't need to worry about losing my life. I'm only here to get Kara back. I'm no help to whatever resistance movement you've formed."_

_Helo jumped in before Anders could answer. "Give Anders a day, Apollo. He'll know if this lead is going to pan out by then."_

"_If the intel is correct, we'll all go and get Kara," Anders insisted._

"_You want me to just sit around this fraking ghost planet while she's out there somewhere, probably in a great deal of pain? No way." Lee shook his head. "Obviously there's a few things Kara left out when she was telling you about me. I've risked my life to save Kara more times than I can count, and she's done the same to me. I will not just stare into space while she's out there in trouble."_

"_I have somewhere I can take you," Helo insisted. "It'll pass the time until we have something to go on." Not waiting for Lee to agree, he turned to Anders. "I have the keys to Kara's Tank. I'm going to take Apollo to somewhere quiet so I can tell him about what's happening on Caprica. We'll be back early tomorrow to find out if there's anything to go on."_

_Anders stared at Lee for a few moments before giving Helo a terse nod. The two Galactica pilots watched in silence as Anders pulled his gun out and walked back in the direction they had been heading._

"_He's going back to Delphi Union. That's where the group is camped out." Helo turned to look at Lee. "I'm not sure I trust him."_

"_What?" Lee exclaimed._

"_There's something off about him. He's a good guy with good intentions, but everything he does is just not quite right. He claims to love Kara." Helo ignored the way Lee tensed at that information. "And yet he isn't going crazy trying to find her like I've been. In the past few minutes since you landed, you've shown a lot more urgency to find her than he has."_

"_He doesn't know her like you and I do," Lee said as they began walking towards where the Tank was parked. "She might have taken him into her bed, but we both know that's the easy part. It's getting Kara to let you into her life that takes time."_

_Helo laughed in agreement. "It's part of her charm."_

"_So, seriously, Helo, what the frak are we doing? You just said that we both love Kara enough to tear this whole planet apart. So why aren't we doing that right now?"_

_Helo opened the driver's side door and slid into the front seat. "I need you to see something. Two weeks ago, Kara took me to her apartment to get this car so we could stop walking."_

"_Her apartment," Lee said, nodding his head. "I assume you got to see the post-Zak fallout then."_

_Helo shifted the car into drive and started steering his way through the deserted streets. "You know about it?"_

"_Who do you think helped her through that time?"_

"_I vaguely remember her mentioning not seeing you for two years in the days before you showed up on Galactica for the decommissioning ceremony," Helo pointed out._

"_Kara was messed up after my brother's death," Lee explained. "She completely lost touch with reality. At the time, I had no idea why. Needless to say, she walked around in a guilt-ridden haze, barely eating and barely sleeping. I don't think she even realizes I spent those first few months with her in that apartment. It was hell to get military leave for that long a time, but Admiral Nagala seemed to have a soft spot for me. It was a good thing, too. She needed someone to watch over her."_

"_You spent months with her and she doesn't remember?"_

_Lee shook his head. "She thought I was Zak. She talked to me, cried to me, screamed at me." Lee paused for a moment before continuing, "She touched me like I was him."_

_Something suddenly occurred to Helo. "She picked up a jacket when we were there."_

"_It was mine, the official graduation gift from flight school for all of its Viper pilots. I let her paint in it. It helped to calm her when the feelings pressed down too hard." Lee looked over at Helo. "She thinks the jacket is Zak's. I never had the heart to tell her it wasn't."_

"_There's a lot that no one knows about you two, isn't there?"_

"_Yeah," Lee said, turning to stare at the buildings passing by. "I don't know what it was, but when Zak introduced me to Kara, something just clicked. She was the friend I had been searching my whole life to find."_

"_Friend?" Helo said, shaking his head in disbelief._

"_What?"_

"_You two don't seem to fit into the normal definition of friendship."_

_Lee let out a small laugh. "She always liked the unconventional. Kara couldn't have anything in her life that might be interpreted as normal. She was the best flight instructor they had on Picon, and she chose to date one of the pilots who in all probability was going to wash out. She was the most stubborn, hot-headed pilot the Academy had ever turned out, and she chose to be friends with the clear-minded, by-the-book older brother of the man she loved."_

"_I think it's time you cut the crap, Apollo," Helo insisted. "A man doesn't jump back into a Cylon stronghold just for a friend and the woman his brother loved once upon a time."_

_Lee didn't answer._

_The rest of the ride was spent in silence, and Helo wondered if maybe he had overstepped his bounds. There were probably things better left to denial when it came to Kara._

_Helo let Lee enter the apartment first, watching as Galactica's CAG slowly stepped down into the personification of Kara's pain. The wall of the stairwell still made Helo's breath catch. The fact that a woman he had known so well could hide away this amazing artistic skill was astounding._

_Helo watched Lee mouth the words of the poem splashed across the wall in jagged black letters. "Do you know anything about that?" he asked._

"_I was there the day she painted it," Lee said simply. He shut his eyes as the memory came back to him._

_Kara had woken up with the early morning light and painted well into the day to create this statement. Lee had laid in her bed, watching her pain furiously in nothing but his jacket and her underwear, tears falling down her face. The words of the poem called to mind what had happened the night before. That was the moment he knew it was time to move on. His presence wasn't helping her anymore._

_Oblivious to Helo's presence behind him, Lee's eyes rested on the words that stung the most. '_Stroking my hair to the beat of his heart, watching a boy turn into a man'. _He could still remember the feeling of her hair against his chest as he held her close in the mess of covers. _

_The day before she painted this, Kara had been going on about how it was her fault that he was dead. She never seemed to tire of blaming herself for Zak's death. Lee had lost track of how many times she had apologized to him._

_Then that night, something shifted. She had woken up from a nightmare, screaming and crying. Lee had moved to sit beside her on the bed and gathered her into his arms. Physical comfort was the only thing that got through to her when she remembered the horrible mess of fire and Viper metal. Kara's hands had reached up to rest at the back of his neck and, still murmuring apologies, she touched her lips softly to his._

_Lee had pulled back immediately, knowing that this was crossing the line, but Kara didn't even notice the rejection. She just kept on apologizing for killing him for a few seconds before a look of confusion mixed with recognition came across her face. Her hands tightened around him and with one whisper of his name, he was lost._

_The next morning, he woke up in her bed and turned to see her flinging black paint at the wall. When he whispered her name, she turned and smiled at him for a moment. His stomach dropped out at the sight of her. She was writing about what had happened between them the night before. He wondered if Kara had been aware it was him she was with the night before or if she thought it was Zak coming back to love her one last time._

_Lee knew he was going to have to leave for his own sake before he could figure out the answer. Either way, it would hurt too much to know._

"_Apollo?"_

_Helo's hesitant voice pulled Lee back into the present, and he walked down the rest of the stairs. "I'm sorry. I was just remembering." Lee took a quick glance around the apartment before turning to look at Helo. "We have to find her."_

"_We will," Helo said with a sad nod._

"_Were you the only one to see this place?" Lee asked, taking a seat on the couch at the base of the stairs._

"_We came here before we met up with anyone else."_

"_And she never came back here? Never brought anyone else to see this place?"_

"_If you're asking if she brought Anders here, then no. I let it slip one day that she had an apartment in Delphi and he asked to see it, but she said no. She told him they didn't have time to be trivial."_

_  
"Good." Lee kicked up his feet and shut his eyes, letting himself relax for a brief moment._

"_What's the supposed to mean?"_

"_This place, every paint stroke, every discarded piece of clothing, every speck of dirt, it's all part of the pain she's had to live with. It's upfront and in your face. You can't avoid it." Lee paused for a second. "That's not the kind of thing that should be shared with just anyone."_

"_She showed it to me," Helo pointed out. "But I'm sure you think that was just a necessary move because she needed the weapons she had stored here."_

_Lee shook his head. "No, she meant to show you this place. She wouldn't have let you inside if she didn't want you to see. I'm not stupid, Helo. You're one of the people she trusted on Galactica. When she heard the news that her squadron was gunned down, it was the loss of you that hurt her the most. You meant a lot to her."_

"_Okay," Helo sighed. "You should get some rest. I'm going to scavenge around for anything we could use to get Kara back. She has to have more weapons stashed somewhere around here. We can head back to the high school in the morning."_

_Lee waited until Helo had made his way out of the apartment before opening his eyes and standing up. Silently he made his way over to the bed and ran his hands over the sheets. He could still feel the heat left behind from his past. Shrugging his jacket off, Lee stretched out along the bed and breathed the memories of Kara in deep._


	2. Part Two

Anders' tip had been right. There was some sort of Cylon medical outpost in the abandoned mental institution. Apparently Kara had been wounded when the Cylons attacked the resistance and they had taken her here. Lee paused at the door, setting himself up for another challenge. He hoped Helo had done what he asked because that was the only way his plan would work.

Anders had planned a full-on assault of the institution when he found out Kara was here, but in Lee's opinion, that was the worst thing they could do. The Cylons would see them coming a mile away. Lee had told Helo his reservations, and they agreed that something had to be done. That was the reason why Lee found himself sneaking out the night before Anders planned to move and Helo was stuck at the resistance base, doing his best to convince Anders not to follow Apollo.

The corridors were empty. Lee decided that was a good sign. The longer he could make it without running into a Cylon, the greater of a chance he had at finding Kara. Keeping his hand on where his gun was holstered, Lee kept moving. She was in here somewhere.

A steady beeping noise grew louder each step Lee took towards the double doors at the end of the hall. He was within twenty feet of the doors when they flew open. Ducking behind the counter of what must have once been a nurse's station, he prayed he was quick enough to escape notice from whatever had entered the corridor.

"Simon, this is getting old," hissed a saccharine-sweet voice. "You said she was the key to this whole project, and yet you've gotten nothing from her."

"It's taking time. Her body is resistant to the treatment," hissed a second voice, this one decidedly male. "And we don't want to kill her."

"You have a few more hours and then she'll give up like the rest of them."

"You don't think anyone will come looking for her?"

"No one will come."

Lee waited until the voices had faded before standing up from behind the nurse's station. The two human-Cylons had said there was someone alive in there. Hoping that was a good sign, he said a quick prayer to the gods that it might be Kara and began to run as fast as he could. The doors swished loudly as he pushed them open.

The room consisted of one empty hospital bed after another. Machines and cords were strewn everywhere almost as if like someone had tried to clean out the whole place in a hurry. The beeping was still echoing through the room, and Lee tried to zero in on where it was coming from. Stepping over a few wayward cords and pushing a chair out of his way, he kept walking.

And then there she was, strapped down to a hospital bed. The machine beside her beeped steadily, letting Lee know he was not too late. There were wires and tubes hooked all over her body, and it was just too much for him. Lee let down his guard as he reached in to start unhooking her. He tuned everything out and just focused on making it better for her. It only took a few moments to finish setting her free, and Lee was glad that she didn't stir to the embarrassment of recognizing what he was doing.

He reached down to feel her wrist, his hands pausing to lightly brush where the bonds had rubbed her skin raw. The steady beat of her pulse underneath his touch put an end to the last of his fears. She was hurting, but she was alive. He could feel the tears begin to fall down his face as he pulled her hand up to his lips. She was cold to the touch.

Lee had no idea why she was the only person left in the facility or why there were no Cylons guarding her, and he didn't care. He was just thankful for this small moment he had been given by the gods. She was alive.

When he felt her hand move slightly in his, he looked up to see her awake and smiling at him through whatever haze the Cylons had put her in. "I knew you'd come for me," she whispered.

Lee pulled the small electrodes off of her face as her eyes began to droop. "You need to stay with me, Kara, if we're going to get you home."

"Lee. Stop." She grabbed his hands with more strength than he thought she had in her. Her eyes fell shut for a moment, and her tongue licked her chapped lips. When she looked at him again, there was desperation in her eyes. "Please go."

"Not without you," he insisted.

"I'm dying," she whispered as her eyes felt shut again. "There's nothing you can do to change that."

"You're not dying, Kara." Lee sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to stroke her cheek. "I won't let you."

"You have no choice, Lee."

"No. I found you. You're alive. That's all I need to know." She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. Lee's face broke out in a large grin as he saw that familiar stubborn glare. "I've seen these kinds of machines before, Kara," he explained. "They're part of the artificial fertilization process for women who can't conceive. Whatever they did to you, it isn't fatal. You might be in pain, but if you don't give up, you'll live through it."

"I've seen woman after woman taken away in a body bag from this very room. Whatever the machines did, it pulls away at something deep inside until you can't take it anymore. It killed each and every one of them, that absence. It will kill me, too."

Lee knew how hard life had been to Kara. He had personally witnessed her whole world collapsing in on her years earlier. Now, as he watched her in silence for a moment, the thought finally dawned at him that maybe he wouldn't be able to get her out of here before the Cylons came back. Maybe she didn't have the strength to let him.

Lee's mind drifted back to the one time she had lost the will to live and the lengths he had gone to in order to bring her back. He would just have to do it again.

"Each of those women you saw die were nowhere near as strong as you. I don't know how, but they let the Cylons take away their will to live. The Kara Thrace I know would never let that happen to her."

"I'm not the same woman you knew then. I can't do this anymore. There's no reason why I should."

Lee leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "If I have to give you a reason to live again, I'll do it."

"What's the supposed to mean?" she asked.

He ignored her question. Now was not the time to be explaining the past. "I already unhooked you from all the machines. I will not hesitate to pick you up and carry you out of this place, Cylons or no Cylons."

"Lee, you're being stupid."

Lee smiled at her and reached his arms around her, helping her sit up. "And you're being difficult. Now that we know everyone's acting normal, what say you help me a little?"

Kara winced in pain as he swung her legs off the side of the bed. Shaking her head, she fought his hold in an attempt to lay back down. "It hurts too much."

"Pain means you're still alive," Lee replied, slipping his arm around her back. "And there's no going back here, Kara. You either die on me right now or we're getting out of this place."

"Dying's an option?" she said with a laugh as he pulled her to her feet.

"I probably should have specified. Dying is an option only if we both do it at the same time."

"So all I have to do is kill you to make the pain stop?" she winced. Each step was wrecking hell on every nerve ending she had.

"At any point, if you want it to end, there's a gun in my holster you could use on me."

Kara rolled her eyes. "As if I would ever shoot you."

"You've threatened before," Lee reminded her as they stepped out into the long hallway.

"I was never serious, and you know it, Lee."

"Sometimes it was unclear," he whispered, pulling her tighter against his body as she stumbled a little. Once they got back into a rhythm, Lee smiled at her. "See we're doing just fine with this whole escape thing."

"Do you have back-up, Lee? Helo maybe?"

Lee shook his head. "Helo's back at the high school keeping Anders and his men from coming in here guns blazing." Kara faltered in her steps, her grip tightening. Lee instinctively moved his other arm around her. "What's wrong, Kara?"

"Anders is alive? The Cylons told me he was killed when I was brought in."

The tears forming in her eyes didn't surprise Lee. Helo had explained how close Kara had gotten with Anders. Still, knowing that didn't help the sting caused by actually seeing it in her eyes and hearing it in her voice. She cared for this pyramid player. "Anders is fine. Like I said, he wanted to storm in here the second he found out they had you. He cares about you a lot."

"He's a good man," Kara said with a smile. "Not the best tactician but his heart's in the right place."

Lee could hear her struggling for the air and decided they would never make it out of her alive if he pushed her too hard. He braced both of their weight against the wall. "Helo told me just how much your heart is in it, too. It was good to hear that you're happy."

"Anders made me forget the horrors I've seen on Caprica. He was exactly what I needed when I needed it."

"It sounds like there's a 'but' in there."

"But Anders wasn't what I needed to get myself out of here," Kara whispered as she pushed off the wall. "We don't have time for breaks, Lee. Let's get going before the Cylons realize you're breaking me out of the nuthouse."

Lee chuckled as he slipped his hands around his friend again. "We're almost there, Kara."

"Good. Because my side fraking hurts." At his confused look, she gave a small shrug. "They've operated on me a few times. The wounds are still a little fresh."

"At least that's all you're going to be carrying with you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I overheard some Cylons when I was trying to find you. Seems your body has been resistant to whatever they've been trying to do. They said they needed more time. Too bad you're not going to be around anymore."

Lee had expected her to be happy when she found out what he knew, but he hadn't expected her to slump to the floor, body shaking with emotion as the long held-back tears spilled out. He kneeled down beside her, unsure if she wanted him to comfort her or not. She had never had mood swings like this. He was afraid if he touched her, she would lash out.

"Kara?" he asked hesitantly after a minute.

"Oh gods," she whimpered. "You really saved me, didn't you?"

Lee was taken aback when she suddenly looked up with him. Her eyes may be glistening with tears, but a huge smile was plastered across her face. Kara stared at him a moment before flinging herself into his arms and squeezing tightly. Her laughter rang in his ears right before she turned to rain kisses all over him. He let out a chuckle as her exuberance pushed them flat against the ground.

Kara whispered something under her breath before leaning in to kiss him gently on the lips. His hands reached out to wrap around her waist as she pressed against him. The heat between them flared up as Kara opened her mouth and invited him in. He couldn't say no.

Lee knew how absurd it was to be making out with his best friend on the floor of a Cylon stronghold, but he found himself not caring. This felt too good to be wrong.

He must have tightened his grip on Kara's waist a little too much because the next thing he knew, she was wincing against him. The reality of how much she must be hurting managed to clear his head rather quickly. "Are you okay?" he asked, shifting so they both sat up.

"I'm fine. Nothing a few appointments with Doc Cottle won't fix."

Lee tried his best not to dwell on her casual mention of returning to Galactica. Instead, he focused on getting his body under control and figuring out why she had attacked him in the first place. "So, that was nice," he laughed as he helped her to her feet. His arm slid around her as they started moving again. "Would you care to explain?"

"The Cylons have been desperate to find a way to impregnate human women with their children. That's what you've stumbled upon. Procreation seemed to be their ultimate goal. These farms take hundreds and thousands of female survivors and hook them up to machines to try to inseminate them. If you're lucky, the toasters drug you up enough so that you can't feel what they do to you." Kara reached her hand down to where he firmly held her waist. "You just told me that I don't have a Cylon abomination growing inside of me, which means you were right. I can make it past the pain."

"Told you I'd give you a reason to live," Lee whispered in her ear.

They walked in silence the last few minutes, Lee lost in his thoughts about the lengths he would go to for this woman and Kara thinking about how lucky she was to have someone who cared for her as much as Lee did. The doors leading outside the institution made barely a noise as Lee wrenched them open.

"I'm sorry, Lee," Kara whispered.

"For what?" Lee asked.

She pushed past him into the outside world. The sun reached out to blind her eyes. "I lost your jacket."

"Huh?"

"The one you gave me when Zak died. I had it on me when the Cylons attacked. I lost it somewhere in the confusion of being taken to this place. They moved me around so much."

"You knew it was mine?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "It had Lieutenant Lee Adama stitched on the sleeve."

Lee's mind went reeling. If Kara knew that was his jacket, did she make any other connection between that time after Zak's death and what he had done? More importantly, did she realize what they had done together?

"I want to go home, Lee," she whispered, the determination clear in her voice. "I'm so damn tired of this planet. I just want to be back on Galactica where things made sense."

There wasn't time for him to tell her he felt the same way as the second they were clear of the building, gunshots filled the air. Lee threw Kara to the ground, covering her with his body. All he could think of was he had to protect her. They hadn't gotten this far for him to let her get hurt again. "Don't move," Lee yelled over the gunfire.

"You're crushing me. I don't think that will be a problem," she yelled back.

Lee tried to forget the little twinge of fear he could hear in her voice and just focus on the options they had. Obviously, the Cylons had let him free Kara in order to attack them when they thought they were safe. It seemed the gods didn't want to make this easy on him.

As if the gods heard his small crisis of faith, a loud boom came out of nowhere as a truck skidded to a halt in front of them, spraying gravel and dirt everywhere. The doors flew open, and Lee looked up in time to see Anders jump to the ground. "Let's go," he yelled over the gunshots, helping both pilots to their feet.

Lee let Anders support Kara as the resistance leader pushed her into the backseat. The gunshots still filled the air around them, and one clipped Lee's shoulder, making him fall to the earth. He heard Kara yell his name and looked up to see her staring at him, eyes wide with fear. Anders had his arms wrapped securely around her, and yet she still looked so lost.

Swearing loudly, Lee used the truck to pull himself to his feet. He couldn't have Kara worrying about him in her current state. Settling into the front seat, he smiled at Helo through the pain as the truck kicked into drive. "Nice of you to pick us up."

"I held them off as long as I could, just like I promised" Helo assured Lee, spinning gravel as he pushed the accelerator down.

"And I got her out, just like _I_ promised." Lee glanced at the backseat in time to see Anders place a small kiss on the top of Kara's head. He could feel the weight of what she had gone through in the past two weeks suddenly pressing down on her as her eyes had hollowed out. Tears began to roll down her face again.

"Kara, honey, stop crying," Anders whispered, pushing the tears off her cheek. "You're safe."

Kara shook her head as her shoulders began to shake. Her hands came up to cover her face. The crying only got worse. Lee tried to tune it out and focus as Helo asked him if he was all right. He had barely told Helo that it had just grazed his arm before Anders started pleading with Kara again.

"Kara?" Anders said. He was trying to pull her hands away from her face, but she wouldn't let him. "Come on. Don't shut me out."

Lee couldn't take this anymore. "Kara, look at me," Lee hissed, reaching out touch her knee.

Anders pushed him away. "I have it, Apollo. You did what you felt you had to do so you can stop worrying now."

Lee glared at him. "I never stop worrying about her, and it's painfully obvious that you do not _have_ it."

"She's probably just tired from all the shit you just put her through," Anders objected. "We could have spared her this if you had just waited until we could mount a full-scale attack. I've tried to humor Helo and give you the benefit of the doubt, but you've done nothing but frak up what little semblance of normalcy we had here." Anders face lit up in disgust. "You had to come here so you could play hero to her again. You couldn't stand the thought that someone else might be capable of keeping her safe."

Lee ignored Ander's insults. He was too busy focusing on Kara's right hand. While Anders was yelling, she had brought it away from her face in order to grasp his wrist. Her grip was tightening. "Move," he hissed at Anders.

"Excuse me?"

"She needs someone she trusts with her right now. She needs me."

"You just can't give it up, can you?" Anders yelled, pulling Kara in closer. "Her world does not revolve around you, Apollo!"

"If you don't move now, I will make you move," Lee threatened.

"Anders, do what he fraking says," Helo insisted. "He's been through a lot worse with Kara than you have. He knows what he's doing. If he says she needs him, she needs him."

Anders loosened his hold on Kara and was surprised to see her move her hand to intertwine her fingers in Lee's. After a second, Lee stood up as much as he could and let her pull him to where she was. Anders shifted into the front seat without argument. It was obvious to him what Kara wanted.

Feeling her shiver, Lee shrugged out of his jacket and slid it around her. He felt her bury her head into his chest, and he calmly whispered words that meant nothing at all as her sobs finally began to die down. He tightened his hold on the one woman who meant the world to him. Smiling to himself, he leaned down to whisper, "You can keep this jacket to replace the other one." He heard a small, muffled laugh followed by a sniffle. It seemed like teasing was the best way to keep her settled, he decided. "So Helo took me to your apartment yesterday. It had a nice inner-angst, oh-I'm-so-tortured feel."

Kara pulled her head up and wiped at her eyes. "Are you talking about the wall?"

"Mostly, yeah."

"It was a poem I wrote shortly after Zak died. It was something that helped me move on. I always thought of it as my guardian angel, watching over me when I couldn't watch out for myself."

"Why was that?" Lee asked, even though he had a feeling he knew the answer.

"You know, I really don't remember. Something about it was soothing to me."

"Maybe we can convince my father to let you turn the wall of the ready room into another soothing poem."

Kara stiffened and pulled back a few inches. "You really think we can make it back to Galactica?"

"I did bring a Raptor with me."

"That's not enough. I'm not leaving anyone behind."

"There's no way we'll ever get enough ships and enough pilots to take everyone back to the Fleet." Lee looked to Helo, hoping the other man might help convince Kara she was being ridiculous.

"Actually, you're wrong, sir," Helo said. "Boomer showed up while you were saving Kara. She brought a Heavy Raider with her. After the casualties suffered by the last Cylon attack, we should be able to fit everyone aboard both the Raider and your Raptor."

"Anders?" Kara said, turning to look at the man in the front seat.

"Don't worry, Kara. I think everyone's ready to leave this planet behind. Besides, the way you and Helo talked, the Galactica is the place to be these days."

Lee could see the resignation and defeat in Anders' eyes and knew that Kara had made a choice without even realizing it. "The Fleet will be happy to have you."

"Thanks," Anders said with a nod.

Helo started talking about the Fleet's need for more pilots and whether any of Anders' men might be interested, giving Lee the freedom to focus his attention back on the woman in his arms. He could feel Kara relax against him completely for probably the first time in years, and it brought the smile back to his face. "So, Kara, how many more situations that end with you in my arms are you going to get yourself into before you admit how hopelessly in love with me you are?"

"Frak off, Lee," she said, shifting slightly. Before she could stop herself, she groaned as the pain intensified. "Why does this hurt more now that I'm out of there?"

"Because you tackled me in a hallway?" Lee joked. "I mean, that can't be good for whatever they did to you."

"I don't recall you minding it," she shot back, pulling away to glare at him.

"Well, it's the least I deserved considering I did defy the President of the Twelve Colonies to come to Caprica in order to rescue you."

"The President doesn't know you're here?"

Lee laughed at the surprise look on Kara's face. He had forgotten that she had no idea what the Fleet had gone through in her absence. Settling in to the backseat, he slid her in close to him again. Kara's hand reached up instinctively to where his rested on her shoulder, and she let out a sigh. It was the most welcome sound he had ever heard. Smiling, he took a deep breath and began, "Oh boy do I have some stories to tell you, Kara. It all started when I held a gun to the XO's head…"


End file.
